Best new restaurant: This might be a bold choice, given that I’ve only been there once and just wrote about it a week ago – but I’m going to go ahead and say it – Fast Gourmet in the gas station at 14/W. Yes, that’s how much I loved it. I will be going there frequently, happy to support a great locally owned restaurant. Call me crazy, fine – but have one of their sandwiches first.

Best new bar: Dodge City. This relaxed, effortlessly cool bar has been a go to meet up place for my friends and I since it opened. You can easily hang out and have a conversation downstairs, and if you’re in more of a wild mood, you can go up to the second floor and dance. Now in a bit of a no-mans land at U street and Vermont, the end of U Street is quickly catching up with the rest of the corridor.

Best meal on U street: So I’m not talking U Street proper, but the greater 14th and U area. And if I give myself those parameters, I say there is a tie between Birch and Barley and Estadio. Birch and Barley’s dining room is beautiful, the food is impeccable, and the beer list – well it’s from Churchkey. Estadio is the hot spot in the neighborhood but it delivers wonderful Spanish food, somehow relatively affordably (at least when I’ve eaten there) with great service.

Runner up: Bar Pilar (you know I love me some Bar Pilar, and the quality has not gone down), Cork.

Winner last year: Bar Pilar.

Best new business on U street: Ginger Root. I’ve made friends with the girls behind Ginger Root/ReVamp Designs, and for good reason. They have a great vision for fashion, are eco-conscious, and are just friendly, nice people. Even though they are both recent imports from outside of the city, they just optimize the new, great DC that I hope we all love. If you haven’t stopped in and said hi at their basement shop at 15/U – please do so, now.

Runner up: Can’t really think of a good runner up for this one, maybe my bias for the awesome Ginger Root.

Winner last year: Mid City Caffe.

Best story of the year: Well jeez, this is hard. While plenty of wonderful things happened on U Street this year, they were overshadowed by the bad. I think a great thing that happened for the community was the movie series at Harrison Field this summer. It brought together the community in a wonderful way.

Worst story of the year: It’s a bit sad that there needs to be a tie for this. Between the horrific daytime shooting following the funeral of Ashley McRae, which lead to Jamal Coates’s death and the death of Ali Ahmed Mohammed outside of DC9, U Street didn’t have the best year. Both of these incidents were so shocking, saddening, and horrific that it really made me think of the state of U street. A reminder that we still need to work to improve our neighborhood, and to never get complacent about anything.

Winner last year: Nori Amaya’s death.

Sad to see them go: There are a lot of U Street area institutions that closed or left. I think HR 57, on lower 14th street, is the one I was saddest to see go. While it is reopening on H Street NE next month, I will still miss it as a place to stop in for great ambiance and music. A laidback, come as you are place that seems to be coming rarer in the neighborhood, HR 57 leaves a hole in the jazz scene on U Street.

Via Aaron Morrissey, the editor in chief of DCist, there’s word that the rumor is true: Cafe Nema and MoMo’s are closing next Monday, the 11thTuesday, the 12th. They have signs on the door. Bummer. No word on what will be replacing these spaces. I encourage everyone to stop by and visit these places before they’re gone for good.

Cafe Nema is one of the pioneers of the revitalization of U street, it opened in 1995. With the loss of Cafe Nema, we’re losing what U street has been.

After the news from the Mid City Business Association that there may be no new restaurants along 14th and U, many have linked to this update from DCRA – noting they are working to increase the capacity of restaurants/bars for the area.

Also, it is very important to note that the Office of Planning is finalizing recommendations to the Zoning Commission to increase the 25% cap on eating and drinking establishments, as well as how the cap is calculated. These proposed amendments will be submitted to the Zoning Commission by April 26, 2010.

I also need to make clear that although the Zoning Administrator must, pursuant to the zoning regulations, deny applications for a certificate of occupancy for any business seeking to open an eating or drinking establishment after the overlay district reaches the 25% cap, the applicant can seek a special exception from the Board of Zoning Adjustment. If the Board of Zoning Adjustment grants the special exception, DCRA will issue the certificate of occupancy and the business may open.

The other day I was looking at the Google street view for different intersections around U street (might have had some time to kill). While I’m not sure when the street view pictures were taken, they were announced about six months ago, and look to have been taken at least a year ago and a half ago (Pink November is still in its old location, Ulah Bistro isn’t open). It made me think about how much the ‘hood has changed just in the past year or so. When I moved here U street was a quieter, hipper alternative to other nightlife destinations. Now it seems to have become the nightlife destination.

Meanwhile the following have closed: Cue Bar, Duke’s City, 14U, Pink November (relocated), George’s Shoe Repair (relocated), Bar Nun, Mocha Hut, Simply Home, Roha, Wild Women Wear Red, and I’m sure many more I’m currently forgetting. It’s at least nice that the places that have opened outweigh those that closed.

It’s one thing to think about how a neighborhood changes in the abstract, it’s another to see it in person. Share your thoughts in the comment section, if you please.

It’s very interesting to see all of this construction in the neighborhood. My question is: will the declining economy allow for these projects to be finished when they would like to? Or will we see more half-renovated/half-constructed properties as funding for construction falls out.

OK, I’m the first one to admit that MCCXXIII was pretty lame, but as a college student it was pretty freaking cool, at least before I turned 21 and could go to a real bar (then it was the Georgetown bar scene, which is a whole other thing). It was in that repertoire of Home (closed), Tequila Beach (closed), Yuca (closed), Lulu’s (closed), Pearl (closed), Apex (gay club still going strong), that were very popular in the under-21 college crowd when I was in college 5 years ag0, or so. Nearly all of them, now including MCCXXIII, have closed.

I had some memories in those places (I was going to type “good” or “fun” memories but I realize that I really had neither) and even though I didn’t step a foot in any of them after I turned 21, it’s still a bit sad to see them go. They were the only places under-21, fake ID-less college student me could go.

I mean, remember Spank, the top level of MCCXIII that was supposed to be super-exclusive? I remember feeling so cool sophomore year when me and my friends managed to score the right wristband to get up there one Thursday night. I’m pretty sure I wore it the next day to classes to show off my coolness. Yes, I’m glad those days are over, but let’s take a moment of silence for those not-so-great clubs of our college years that are no longer with us.